The Crawler
The Crawler is the primary antagonist of Fable III's second half. It is first encountered after the Hero, along with Sir Walter Beck and Captain Ben Finn, are shipwrecked on the coast of Aurora. Ben Finn is separated from Walter and the Hero. While they are trying to figure out where they are, the Crawler begins to psychologically attack the group. When it first attacks Walter, it leaves him blind until the Aurorans find him and help him. Walter never seems to fully recover from the attack, and this seems to allow the Crawler to possess him later on. It is only seen in physical form a handful of times throughout the game, but its voice can be heard taunting the Hero and his/her allies during encounters with the Crawler and its "children." The Children are the servants of the Crawler and appear as humanoids made of shadow with demonic wings upon their back (similar to the shadows in Fable II). Generally they are very weak, but they have the ability to possess statues, thus increasing their power. It is unknown whether the Children are an extension of the Crawler, or shadowy beings that do the Crawler's bidding. The way the Crawler speaks about them may indicate it is a sort of "parent" as it gets angry when the Children cannot kill you. Goal The Crawler has the single-minded goal of destroying Albion, along with the rest of the world and consuming it with darkness, in which it prepares on doing so for six years. Personality wise, it appears to find everything weak or evil, and almost acts like it is doing the world a favour by destroying it. The Crawler is incredibly cruel and has no issue with possessing people to turn them against each other, or torturing people physically and psychologically. Interactions with Albion For some unknown reason, The Crawler came to the land of Aurora five years prior to the events of Fable III. A year later, King Logan visited Aurora and saw his entire escort wiped out by the Crawler. He was nearly killed himself, but was nursed back to health by the native Aurorans in their city. He promised to return and wipe out the Crawler, but never did. This was a turning point for him; it is revealed that Theresa told him that the Crawler would attack Albion and that he must prepare, leading him to make the decision to break his promises and become a tyrant. Four years later, you also promise to help the Aurorans, to gain their support for your rebellion. However, this is mainly in the form of formally making Aurora part of your kingdom and providing guards. After deposing Logan, you have exactly one year in Bowerstone Castle to prepare for the inevitable attack by raising up to 6,500,000 gold coins to pay for an army to fight its minions. This is challenging if you keep all of your promises, but is possible providing you personally save up enough money to help the treasury. When the Crawler attacks, you must fight your way through the Crawler's Children in Bowerstone Market, at which point it possesses Walter Beck and becomes the final boss you must face. You defeat the Crawler fatally, but also at the cost of Sir Walter's own life. Appearance The Crawler appears to be a ghost-like being with no legs that tends to disappear and reappear as he pleases. Its body is small and thin in comparison to its head (though it's still a bit taller than a person, probably even taller if it didn't hunch over), which is oddly shaped. It has large eyes, spikes protruding from the top of its pale head, and a large, serrated looking mouth that stretches across all of the width of the head, which has 6 eye sockets lined up around the circumference. Power The power he exerts over the darkness is very complex and substantial. He is able to look into people's hearts and minds, telling them what they don't want to hear and twisting their emotions around, usually into rage, fear, or depression, in a very similar way to Banshees from Fable II. In the desert, he continually mocks the player after you are forced to leave Walter. He possesses Walter's body and cries out "I'm blind!" before his voice twists to a taunting, mocking tone. Along with these, the Crawler can cast hallucinations in others at its mildest, and completely start to transform the landscape at its worst. In the final battle, the Bowerstone market soon begins to have small sand dunes appear, bodies are thrown up against glass, crates explode, and even block out the sun (on which Ben comments). In the Hero's fight against the now-possessed Walter, he will attack the Hero similarly to the Sentinel. Along with having the ability to possess bodies, it is said by The Crawler: "The lost sheep returns to the flock. No one can leave the darkness behind." and said by Walter that The Crawler has been inside of him the entire time after his encounter, meaning it can have a major influence over somebody who does not have the fortitude to resist. It can also have wisps possess inanimate objects such as Minions and Sentinels. Also any shadow that is summoned by the Crawler or Sentinel have wings, but are not seen flying. Taunts In each of its appearances, the Crawler ceaselessly berates the Hero and his companions, its ranting, screaming voice echoing from the shadows. It taunts and mocks the Hero about the futility of his mission, and the darkness that will overwhelm the world. Some of these are listed below. "The light you bring will die. The light inside you will die. All that you are will die." "It bleeds light and hope! It is such a beautiful sight!" "The Children hunger!" "Ah, the eyes are gone forever..." "We are coming. We will devour your kingdom." "There will be no bargains. There will be only darkness. The children command it!" "You will turn to moss and dust, and we will take the darkness into the world." "A great wave of darkness will cover your land. They will come for your king. Who would sit upon the throne of Albion?" "The darkness is inside you! You cannot escape it, it follows you everywhere!" "We will snuff out every last light, smother every breath from every mouth, and stop the beating of every heart." "He would have done anything for you, and now, he screams alone!" "Blindness is our gift to you. It is the most blessed state of being." "You have done such hurtful things. They will rejoice to see you dead." "Are you thinking of your loved ones? Are you thinking about how you will never see them again?" "Watch as we fly into your heart!" "You have done such hurtful things. Did you think I would not know? Did you think I would allow it?" "The light in your eyes offends us! Let it go out!" "Darkness will swallow you whole!" "The Dark Guardian shall come and protect us... and all that is flesh and light shall die." "We are coming, for all those you wish to protect, all those you wish to control." "Dead fingers talk, dead fingers whisper, dead fingers claw at on million eyes!" "Are you blind? Are you blind yet?!" "But you, too, wish for the black void... you tire of your travels, your burdens, the cries of the helpless, the cries of your dead. You too will be swallowed." "Give in to the Darkness." "The Children must feed!" "You've brought hurt! The Children are angry!" "This Land is Ours! Darkness shall spread across the world!" "Did the Blind Seeress not tell you about us? Did she not warn you?" "The lightbringers come, but this is the kingdom of unlife now, THIS is the kingdom of death!"' "Death, beats it's wings for you." "We drink the sounds you give us. The cries of your young, the gurgle of a freshly ripped throat, we give thanks for your desperation." "You try to run away, but you are made of sand! You are coming apart between our fingers!" "Petals, falling into the river. You are the flowers the children will pick and cast into dead water." "You are tainted. The stain will never wash out. The sun will never shine upon you again. Tainted...broken little toys..." "It doesn't matter if you leave. We are inside you. Your heart, your lungs, your thoughts will all be blackened." "You let him die. You let us take him. But you're glad, are you not? You wished him pain. You wished him undone, unthreaded, unliving!" "But you too wish for the black void. You tire of your travels, your burdens, the cries of the helpless, the cries of your dead. You too will be swallowed." "The children hide in their shells. They have bodies now. Bodies can tear you asunder!" "He bleeds light and fades away. You should see it. It's a beautiful sight." "Do you wish to see our face?" "I only want to care for you. Am I not your father figure?" "You rule over a graveyard. Is that what you wanted?" "You are already dead inside. Join me in darkness." "I have killed so many of you already. Why fight me any longer?" "Why did you do this to me?" "You made us do it! You made us!" "We are the swarm!" "I am shadow... and death." "Crawl... Crawl!" "The children... I can't see the children!" "Our protector... our sentinel... an engine in the darkness!" "The Dark Guardian shall protect the children always!" "All that you love shall become shadow. All that you see shall become death." Trivia *It is unknown who provided the voice for the Crawler. *The Crawler has many similar attributes to The First in the Buffy the Vampire Series, it cannot attack anyone in its physical form, it can transfer its influence into a human, it can take on the form of others and it claims to be an ancient being. *Despite it's impressive mental powers it is physically very weak, as Walter repels it by tossing a torch at it. Also a note in Aurora mentions the Crawler only ceased it's attack on the writers house when dawn broke. Implying a strong vulnerability to light and or heat. *During one scene, the Crawler admits that it has been waiting centuries to attack Albion. *The Crawler seems more interested in Walter than the Hero, maybe because Walter had darkness that caught the attention of The Crawler before the Hero did. This is possibly because of his fears, making him easier to exploit, or because he spoke the text that removed the barriers in the Aurora cave. *The Crawler appears to be aware of Theresa and her abilities as in one of its comments it says "Did the blind seeress not tell you about us? Did she not warn you?" *The Crawler is never seen to fight the player or any other character with its own physical strength. Instead, he resorts to attacks upon the human psyche and using the bodies of others to attack, such as using the Children and Walter to harm the Hero. *Whenever you encounter The Crawler if you go to The Sanctuary it becomes like its lair, empty and decrepit looking. There are pools of black sludge on the floor and Jasper is missing. You also only have access to your clothing and weapons rooms. This occurs during the first encounter and during the climactic battle as well. *The Darkness that goes to Albion could be a reference to the Black Plague that spread from Asia into Europe in the mid fourteenth century and killed over 70,000,000 in its wake. *In the Fable III Limited Collectors Edition card deck, The Crawler is seen as the King of Clubs. *The Crawler may be inspired by Cthulhu from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. *The Crawler seems to enjoy appearing randomly behind or beside his targets, as seen when he does so twice with Walter, during both encounters with him. This may be a tactic to frighten or surprise them. *When searching bookcases in the Reliquary, a message will sometimes pop up indicating that the bookcase contains "A series of books detailing the horrid, prophetic nightmares of the mad monk Silvestre Magus. The final one is simply called 'Darkness Descends on Albion'." This likely foreshadows the Crawler's attack on Albion. *Aside from when it is possessing Walter, the Crawler never refers to itself in the singular. Category:Enemies Category:Spoilers Category:Fable III Enemies Category:Fable III Characters Category:Characters